Memphis Klan permit up in the air

Confederate Park, named to honor Civil War veterans such as Capt. J. Harvey Mathes, a journalist, has been renamed Memphis Park. The Loyal White Knights filed a permit application on Feb. 14 to hold a rally on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse to protest the renaming of the park and two others.

MPD director Toney Armstrong

The Exalted Cyclops of the Loyal White Knights said Wednesday he met with Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong, who "acted like he didn't want to approve" a permit for a March 30 rally to protest the renaming of three Confederate-themed parks in Memphis.

Edward Beasley said his title signifies he is the Tennessee leader of the Loyal White Knights. The group refers to itself on voice mails as "one of the most active klans in the U.S.," but the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan said the group is not a part of the Klan umbrella group The United Klans of America, and is hoping to use the March 30 rally as a recruiting tool.

The permit application was signed by a woman, Tamra Crowder, whom Beasley said is a friend. Her driver's license, copied as part of the permit process, gave a home address in Olive Branch, Miss.

Beasley said his meeting with Armstrong was Tuesday at a location away from Armstrong's office at 201 Poplar. "They patted me down," he said, and at some point he said Armstrong told him, "‘I have better things to be doing with my time.' He didn't like me because I was white, and I was right."

Beasley said he is scheduled to meet with Armstrong again and that he told the police director that the Loyal White Knights are prepared to file a lawsuit if the permit is denied. "We are not going to just lay down." If necessary, he said, the group would turn the rally into a "walking picket" Downtown to protest the park name changes. The primary focus of the name-change has been Forrest Park in the Medical Center complex, which was changed by a City Council resolution to Health Sciences Park.

The head of the Loyal White Knights is Imperial Wizard Chris Barker of Pelham, N.C., who said Wednesday that Armstrong has told the group it would cost at least $150,000 for the city to provide security for the March 30 protest. Barker said the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged such fees in other cities and has won the cases. "He (Armstrong) is basically bluffing. If he continues to bluff, we'll call the ACLU."

Barker and Beasley said they are not sure how many members will be in Memphis. Beasley said it could be up to 2,000, but Barker said several protests and rallies are scheduled around the country, and it could reduce the numbers able to travel to Memphis on March 30.

At the Southern Poverty Law Center, chief investigator Joe Roy said the center tracks Klan and white supremacy groups, which have splintered into a variety of factions through the years, some with "skinhead, biker and Nazi divisions. It gets real blurry. That's one of the reasons it's so hard to track them."